Cackles in Athens

At the turn of the 5th and 4th century BCE, Athenian democracy
is experiencing a transient, oligarchic confusion
resulting from long-standing conflict with Sparta.
Artistic entertainment is offered to the people of Athens
by nonentities, scribblers and shamans; the crowd longs
for the past professionalism of their playwrights, classics.

Aristophanes sends Dionysus to Hades1, wanting him to return

with Euripides. Patron of the theater crosses to hell by boat
through the lake - among the comic croaking of the frogs. On the spot
he organizes agon for Aeschylus and Euripides - a ring for
the prodemocratic mentor and pragmatic socialist. As a result,
both dramatists belabor one another - as the scoffer Aristophanes wants it -
with bombastic quotations from their plays.

On the return trip, Dionysus takes Aeschylus,

who is supposed to heal Athens Spectators,
refreshed with the comedy, leave the theater and
among the comical giggles
they bravely parody frogs from the infernal lake:
"Brekekekex koax koax, brekekekex koax koax!"

MMXVII

1 in the comedy Frogs, staged in 405 BCE